Bornite Facts
Bornite Facts
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Interesting Bornite Facts: |
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"Peacock Ore" sold to tourists and mineral collectors is often labeled as a variety of bornite; however, it is actually chalcopyrite treated with acid which appears as similar to bornite. |
Other names for bornite may include blushing copper, erubescite, peacock copper, purple copper ore, and variegated copper. |
It is both a primary and secondary mineral often found in copper ore veins, mainly in hydrothermal metamorphic rocks and in mesothermal veins. |
Bornite may also be found in hydrothermal replacement deposits and in igneous intrusions and dikes. |
Bornite can be found in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, where the most distinct and largest crystals have been found. |
Good crystals have also come from Shaba, Congo (Zaire), and from the Mangula Mine in Mhangura, Zimbabwe. |
Other locations include the province of Cornwall, England, which has produced some crystallized specimens. Other similar crystals have come from San Martin, Zacatecas, Mexico. |
In the United States, large quantities in massive form have been extracted from Arizona copper mines; with rare crystals mined in Butte, Montana; and small crystals once found in a copper mine in Bristol, Connecticut. |
Bornite has also been extracted in Colorado, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, as well as from territories in Canada. |
Common minerals associated with bornite include galena, chalcopyrite, chalcocite, magnetite, quartz, pyrite, calcite, and barite. |
Similar minerals, but can be distinguished from bornite include chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, and nickeline. |
Bornite was first described in 1725 in an area which is now the Czech Republic. |
The name bornite is named for an Austrian mineralogist and paleontologist, Ignatius Von Born. |
Bornite is one of the most attractive minerals used for jewelry, though it does have a very high price associated with it. |
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